Do I Know You?
by Razzle
Summary: A very AU Gundam Wing fanfic in the works. I'll be adding more chapters as I write them! Chapter Four is finally posted! See, I told you I'd continue this fanfic! - main pairing: Relena/Heero 1xR You'll see that later, though. OC chars galore.
1. Show and Tell

**Chapter 1: Show and Tell**

Just how much closer can somebody get to a skateboard?

Not much.

Branton had, of course, brought his skateboard to "Show-and-Tell" - something I think is a little childish for the tenth grade, to start with. But honestly, didn't he have anything else in his life worth sharing?

"So I gave Z a new coat of paint this summer," he was saying as he showed off his board to the class. It was mostly red and white, but had a large, yellow letter Z proudly painted across it like a big zig-zag or a lightning bolt. I'll bet he thought it looked super cool. "The old coat was kinda faded." Branton lowered Z and gave the teacher a 'can I go now?' look. The teacher nodded, so Branton went back to his desk to be his usually anti-social self. As always, he completely ignored me and the student to his other side, staring straight ahead at the next few show-and-tellers.

I tuned out in boredom, remembering my first - and last - attempt to make friends with Branton the day he'd transferred to my school.

* * *

I had caught up to Branton just outside when school let out.

"Hey! Hi!" I called, grinning and running over to him. He turned to look at me, skateboard tucked under his arm. "It's nice to see a new face in school," I said, giving him a welcoming smile.

Before I could say anything else, he grinned, jumped on his skateboard and zoomed past so fast I thought he'd knock me over.

"Watch it!" I yelled, jumping back and staring as he skateboarded out of sight. "Whatever," I said to the air in front of me. "By the way, I'm Ellen." Shrugging, I went home.

* * *

"Ellen Pekraff?"

The girl next to me had been daydreaming with a bored look on her face, but snapped out of it when her name was called for the Show-and-Tell.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't've tried to mow her down for being friendly. In the two weeks since I'd moved here, she hadn't done anything to be rude, after all.

Ellen grabbed a couple sheets of paper off her desk and walked to the head of the classroom where the teacher waited.

"What have you got for us, Ellen?" he asked her. "A story or a poem, perhaps?"

"No," she said and turned to the students to speak to us directly. "I decided not to bring something for Show-and-Tell. Don't you all find this a little childish and silly? To 'get to know our fellow students better,' I thought it might be cool to do something more up to our age level, like talk about how we could get world peace, or something like that. Frankly, I think having a student debate about something might be a little less boring than pretending to be kindergarteners. What do you guys all think?"

"If you don't have something to share with the class, Ellen," the teacher interrupted pointedly, "then you may go back to your desk."

She gave a shrug and walked back to her desk without another word.

What a girl.

* * *

When school let out, I saw Branton hanging around outside, waiting for someone. I started to walk on past but surprisingly, he stopped me and said, "Nice speech."

It wasn't much, but you had to expect that from a guy like Branton. I smiled and said, "Thanks."

"You're wasting your time, though," he went on. "Teachers hate being wrong, so as far as they're concerned, they never are. Besides, who wants to sit around and talk about 'world peace'? It's not gonna happen, and if it does it won't be because a bunch of teens talked about it."

The nerve of that guy! I try and be nice, and then when he's rude, I give him some space. But he still has to go and find me to tell me I'm a loser? "You-y-!" I sputtered. Angrily, I snatched Z out of his hands, threw it on the ground, and jumped on, riding it away.

"ELLEN!" he hollered, chasing me on foot. "Give that back! I swear, I'll kill you, Ellen!"

"Wha?" I gasped, losing my balance. I fell off the skateboard, landing on my rear. Ignoring me, Branton charged past and grabbed Z. Turning back to glare at me, he stormed off home.

I sat there for several minutes, not bothering to stand up, staring after him in shock.


	2. The Deathwheels

**Chapter 2: The Deathwheels**

"Hi, Ellen!" one of my friends called to me in the school hallway.

"Hi!" I called back, waving her over to see the sign posted up on the wall that I was looking at. "Looks like Mr. Terry is putting on another play."

"The Wizard of Oz?" she read aloud. "The tryouts are next Friday. Well, that looks like fun! Are you going to try for a part, Ellen?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. It does sound cool," I admitted, grinning. "Even if I'm not the solar system's greatest actress."

"Oh, come on, Ellen! You'd sparkle. Everyone would love you on stage."

We started walking to our first class. "What about you?" I asked. "Are you planning to try out?"

"Oh, sure. I think it'll be great."

* * *

I filled my lunch tray and turned to look for a free space to sit in the crowded school cafeteria.

"Over here, Ellen!"

"Yeah, we saved a seat for you!"

My friends were already sitting clumped together at one table, calling me over with big grins and waves.

Grinning back, I walked across the room to join them, and got almost pulled into my seat by the girls on either side of me. I noticed one of my friends was sitting across from me holding a lunch box instead of a tray of school food, trying not to giggle too much.

"All right, okay, I'm here already," I grinned. "What's the deal, you guys?"

"You didn't think we'd forget your birthday, did you?" another of my friends asked, then nudged the one holding the lunch box. "Go on, open it."

She did so, making all my friends burst out laughing again, and revealing five pink-iced cupcakes. The one in the middle had a candle in it.

"Happy birthday!" they all said together, then hugged me whether or not they had to lean over lunch to do it.

"This is so great!" I told them honestly.

Looking up, I saw Branton reach the end of the lunch line with his tray. I was in a forgiving mood, and besides, I'd been the one who was a jerk last time we talked, so I waved to him.

"Hey! Branton! Sit with us?" I called.

He looked over at me when he heard his name called, and stared hard for a second or two before he turned and walked to the other side of the room with his lunch.

I shrugged, and we ate the birthday cupcakes my friends had brought to surprise me with. There hadn't been room in my friend's lunch box for anything other than the cupcakes, but that didn't matter since we all shared our lunches with her anyway.

* * *

I stacked some books in my locker and shut the door on it. As I turned to go to my next class, I saw Branton come zooming down the hall toward me on Z. I barely had time to flatten myself against my locker to avoid getting smashed.

Another boy, with a long brown braid, was walking towards us from the other direction. Just as Branton started to pass him, he reached out with both hands, shoved Branton by the chest and said, "Loser!"

Z went skidding out from under Branton's feet while he crashed backwards into the lockers. He nearly kept himself from falling down, but his foot twisted and he hit the floor.

"Are you okay?" the guy with the braid asked me gallantly. He stood on Z with one foot, having rescued it from rolling away down the hall.

I looked at Branton. He tried to stand, but his foot wouldn't hold him and he sat back down on the floor.

I glared at the other boy. "What is your problem?" I demanded, going to Branton to help him stand up. He winced as he stood up on his injured foot, even with me helping him, so I draped his arm over my shoulders to take more of the pressure off.

Branton stared at me in surprise.

"Come on, I'll help you get to the nurse's office," I told him.

"What'd I do?" the other boy said in a confused tone as he watched us leave.


	3. Five Playing Hooky

**Chapter 3: Five Playing Hooky**

The school nurse put a hand on her waist and gave me a stern look. "You're just lucky you didn't break every bone in your body, young man!"

_Great,_ I thought. _I've landed myself in the nurse's office, I have a sprained ankle, and I'll probably get detention for riding my skateboard in school. What a rotten way to spend the afternoon._

"Can't I just take an aspirin or something?" I asked hopefully.

"Absolutely not!" the nurse said, horrified. "You're too young to take aspirin." Then her expression softened, and she sighed. "All right, I'll see what I can find. I'm sure I've got some pain medication you can take." She shook her head as she turned to leave, making the short, fat braid on each side of her head swing back and forth.

As soon as she had shut the door behind her, I got up and half-hopped to the open window. I put my hands on the sill and pulled myself out onto the school lawn outside.

"Are you nuts?" I looked up. It was the boy who had shoved me off my skateboard earlier. I frowned at him, but he continued talking - well, shouting - anyway. "What, are you trying to kill yourself?"

"Why?" I asked, standing up and brushing grass off my jeans, ignoring the throbbing pain in my ankle. "You wanna help some more?"

"No," the boy said, taken aback. "But are you crazy, jumping out of windows? What's your problem?" He shrugged, giving up on trying to get a reaction out of me. "By the way, I'm Max."

"I'm Branton," I replied, "but my friends call me Hero."

"Oh, yeah?" Max grinned. "What about your enemies?"

I didn't laugh, but I did crack a small smile at that. "Them too," I admitted, and headed away from the school building. For whatever reason, Max decided to tag along.

* * *

"Come on," Kevin told the other boy as he leaned up against the park picnic table a few feet away from the skateboard ramp. "You know, you really should be wearing a helmet and elbow and knee pads." Kevin hoped the boy would listen to him, but that didn't tend to happen very often.

"Nah, it's cool, man!" the boy said with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "Watch this!"

Scraaaaaaaape, thud. "OW!"

"I told you so!" Kevin shouted as he ran to the fallen guy's side, but his voice was anything but smug. Kevin hated seeing anyone get hurt at the skate park. Or at all, for that matter. "You shoulda listened to me. Now you go _right_ on home and take care of that. You're lucky it's just a bunch of scrapes and bruises - and next time, wear your safety gear!"

"Yeah, yeah. Yes, Kevin," the boy said, suitably cowed by his own foolishness. He picked up his skateboard and headed home, just as he'd been told.

* * *

"I knew it!" Nurse Polly exploded, seeing her small school nurse's office empty. "I swear, next time I'm going to tie him down to the examination table!"

* * *

By the time I reached the park, with Max still following me, I was tired of limping. _Stupid twisted ankle,_ I thought. I picked up a stick that had fallen from one of the park trees, dropped with relief onto the ground, and snapped the stick in half.

"What now?" Max asked, watching interestedly over my shoulder as he stood off to the side.

"Look, nobody asked you to play hooky with me," I said, unlacing my shoes.

"I know," he replied, lifting both hands in a shrug, "but I wasn't having any fun and excitement, so I just invited myself along to your little party."

I didn't bother to answer. Holding the two pieces of wood on either side of my twisted ankle, I tied them on with the shoelaces, then held out my foot in front of me and wiggled my leg a little to make sure the splint would stay. My shoes were only a little floppy without their laces. Perfect.

As I got to my feet and started walking again, putting my full weight on my injured leg this time, I heard a horrified and somewhat sickened groan from Max.

"Okay, okay! All right. Fine, I get it - you can make your own splint. But does that mean you _have_ to WALK on it?"

* * *

Ray Chang sat, crosslegged, on the ground with his back to the hyena cage at the local zoo. The animals walked by occasionally, sometimes making their laughing calls, watching him curiously, but Ray paid no attention to them. He knew they couldn't get through the fence to where he sat, even if _they_ didn't know that. He had his tenth-grade math homework spread out across his lap, and he was frowning down at it. _Nope... multiplication tables are too easy... How do they expect us to learn anything when they won't teach us anything challenging?_

With a frustrated groan, he reached out to the side and pulled his backpack into his lap. Reaching in to exactly the spot he was keeping it, Ray pulled out a college level calculus theory textbook he had borrowed from the local college library. He went there often, and even had his own library card: 'Ray Chang - Verona State College Library'.

_Now this is more like it,_ he thought to himself, starting to feel a little boggled. _...if only I could understand it! Grr..._

* * *

"Would you be interested in taking on a challenger?"

Kevin turned to see who the quiet voice had come from. A tall, thin boy about his age, apparently around fifteen or sixteen, with long brown bangs sticking out from underneath his helmet and very mismatched shoes stood looking at Kevin with a somber expression.

"You're on!" Kevin grinned, snapping his own helmet on over his sandy blonde hair. "I'm Kevin," he introduced himself, sticking out his right hand.

"Owen," the other boy said, taking the offered hand and shaking it. "May the best man win!"

"Right," Kevin agreed with a nod. He grabbed his skateboard while Owen sat down on the picnic table's bench and fiddled with his much larger left shoe, revealing rollerskate wheels.

"Hey, a skate shoe!" Kevin said. "Cool. But just one?" Turning to his friends, a local good-guy gang mostly in their early twenties, he said, "You guys can judge - if that's all right with you of course?" he added politely to Owen.

Owen nodded with a small smile.

As the two boys started up with their skating tricks, one of the gang reached for the knob of the boombox he'd brought and turned on some music, cranking up the volume.

_I just feel rhythm emotion  
__kono mune no kodou wa..._

The boys skated to the music and to several shouts of "Go Kevin!" and "Good luck, Owen!" but it was soon clear they were almost perfectly matched with skill. Finally, Kevin stepped on one end of his skateboard, braking to a stop, and held up his hands.

"Okay, I forfeit," he said, a little out of breath.

Owen rolled to a stop on his one skate shoe, facing Kevin. "Yeah, me too," he agreed, also breathing hard.

"Hey!" Kevin objected. "We can't both forfeit!"

Owen shrugged. "Why not?"


	4. Nightmare at Verona

**Chapter 4: Nightmare at Verona**

Milo Pekraff rode up to the sidewalk in front of the dorm building on his motorcycle, stopped, turned off the engine and took his helmet off. Nancy reflected yet again how very good-looking her boyfriend was, with his loooooooooooong platinum blonde hair and ice blue eyes. He was riding a large, white motorcycle today, but he was so tall that his foot readily reached the ground to stabilize the bike. With his helmet resting on his leg, Milo raised his free hand and waved, grinning so that his eyes were squinched shut. "Hi, Nancy!" he greeted her, before setting the parking brake and stepping off his bike.

"Hey, Milo!" she called back, running to hug and kiss him. "You don't visit often enough, you know," she told him.

"I know," he agreed, still grinning, "but check out my new motorcycle!" He turned and gestured to where it sat parked behind him. "It's called 'The Tailgater'. It's a really cool hotrod my friend found for me at a great deal. It's twenty years old, but it handles really well!"

"That's great," Nancy told him, looking over the bike with appreciation. She knew a bit about motorcycles herself - one couldn't help it, hanging around Milo so much. "You would never guess its age just by looking at it, except for the style."

"Yeah!" Milo said enthusiastically. "Come on, let's go in. I don't want to miss your college party night!"

* * *

"He did _what?_" I said, aghast.

Nurse Polly sighed. "He left," she repeated. "Through the window, I'll bet. I don't think he could have snuck out past me through the front door of my office. I'm usually so careful about that."

I had come to check on Branton during my lunch period, only to find that he had disappeared. "What about his leg?" I asked, still concerned. "He was limping pretty badly."

"It's just a sprain, Ellen," Nurse Polly said. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Do you know him well?"

I shrugged. "I guess you could say that. We sit next to each other in most of my classes. Well, thanks. I'd better run so I don't miss my next class!"

* * *

"What did you do with Z?" I demanded, turning finally to look at Max.

"Huh?" he replied, blinking at me.

"My _skateboard_...?" I prompted.

"Oh, yeah! That. It's in my locker back at school."

I just stared at Max, unable to believe my ears. That - was - _my - __**skateboard!**_

* * *

"A disco ball? Really?" Milo asked, grinning at Nancy from underneath the silver party mask he was now wearing that covered the top half of his face.

"It's kind of retro," she agreed, sipping her coffee as she sat on the tall barstool next to him, "but the freshmen get a kick out of it."

The rest of the students had finally given up and returned to their dorm rooms for the night, but Milo and Nancy had decided to stay behind at the party by themselves to talk. The disco ball lit up the dim party room in cool (if retro) patterns of colored light, and Nancy thought it made Milo look even more dashing.

"So," Milo said, resting his elbow on the countertop. "How are the students treating you, dorm counselor? Are they misbehaving and giving you a rough time?"

"No, of course not," Nancy replied proudly. "The students in on my floor are all very well-behaved! Students only get in trouble when the counselor doesn't know what they are doing. I actually feel kinda sorry for those kids."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Milo disagreed. "My counselor never was able to keep _me_ out of trouble."

Nancy grinned. "Then he must not have known what he was doing."

* * *

_Smoke..._

_Fire - screaming, and collapsing pieces of building. Nancy ran through the dorm hallway, horrified by the destruction she saw around herself. _Why?_ she thought. _Why would someone bomb Verona State?

_"No!" she shouted, shaking from head to toe as she caught sight of a wounded student laying on the floor of his dorm room. Running to kneel by him, she scooped him up. "This is terrible! What's going on here?"_

_All around, Nancy continued hearing the terrible sounds of explosions and screaming._

_"NO!"_

* * *

"NO!"

Nancy sat bolt upright in bed, shaking and clutching her sheets. "What a nightmare," she said, shuddering. In sharp contrast with the disturbing dream she'd just had, bright sunshine filtered in through her window between the off-white blinds.

"Yikes!" she yelped, leaping out of bed as she caught sight of her clock. "I overslept - it's nine a.m. already! Good thing I don't have classes today."

_I know what'll make me feel better,_ Nancy thought to herself, still feeling shaken. _I'll go visit Milo and tell him about this dream. He's always got something smart to say - I'm sure he'll cheer me up!_

* * *

"Oh, toast crumbs!" Nancy swore, slamming both fists into the steering wheel. "Come on, baby," she pleaded with her car, "don't have a flat tire!" Nancy pushed the car door open and stepped out. Sure enough, it was a flat tire. "Oh, now what am I gonna do?" she groaned, running a hand through her short black hair.

"Do you need some help?" a young and slightly condescending voice asked from behind her. Nancy turned to see an Asian boy in his mid-teens, holding a stack of schoolbooks under his right arm and a red-and-black skateboard under his left.

"Yeah, I've got a flat tire," Nancy explained gratefully, "but I don't know how to change it. Do you?"

"Sure," the boy agreed readily, setting his stuff down on the pavement behind her car. She opened the trunk for him, and he pulled out the jack, setting to work right away.

"You know," he said, as he pumped the car up on the jack, "if you're the kind of woman who can't change her own tire when you get a flat, you should take a man along to do it for you."

Nancy stared at him in disbelief. "Oh, come on!" she snapped. "Gimme a break. I've had a rough day, okay?" Then she did a quick double-take. "Hey! Shouldn't you be in school?"

The teenage boy didn't answer her, but just finished changing her tire. "There you go," he said finally. "See ya." Without another word, he picked up his books, hopped on his skateboard, and skated away.

"You should really be in SCHOOL, you know!" Nancy called after him, but he just ignored her and kept going.


End file.
